


a family of three

by bloodredcherries



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 15:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15777288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodredcherries/pseuds/bloodredcherries
Summary: Drs. Andrew and Elizabeth Granger, who ran a successful dentistry practice in their suburb of Herefordshire, were two perfectly normal individuals. Over the course of the year, they had forced themselves to come to terms with the fact that their daughter, Hermione, was also thoroughly normal, though not in the way that Elizabeth and Andrew had predicted over the years.





	a family of three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maidenjedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/gifts).



Hermione Jean Granger was a  _ thoroughly _ normal preteen girl. There was positively  _ nothing _ abnormal or out-of-the-ordinary about the newly minted eleven-year-old daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Granger, and to suggest such a thing was highly improper. Of course, the  _ reason _ that no one suggested that there was anything abnormal or out-of-the-ordinary about the young girl was the simple fact that...well...young Miss Granger was a  _ bit _ of an outcast, and the Drs. Granger were quite busy with their dentistry practice (they were working to establish one on their own, you see, it was natural that when Hermione had desired independence they had gone along with it, reasoning amongst themselves that there was no need to send their daughter to after-school care, or hire a babysitter to watch the telly whilst Hermione kept to herself and her room full of books and study materials), so as a general rule, Miss Granger never bothered to mention anything that she found unusual about herself, and her parents generally tended to discount such occurrences as their imaginations, or perhaps being overtired, or whatever excuse Hermione helpfully provided for them that explained the strange events as something more dully mundane. 

 

The Grangers were a family of three.

 

Andrew and Elizabeth had attempted to provide Hermione with a younger sibling, in the hopes that the companionship of another child would bring her out of her shell and convince the other students in the local primary school that she was a perfectly acceptable friend, but the years had gone on without any progress in that regard, so they had decided that (perhaps) one child was all they were meant to have. Hermione took the news that she was going to be their sole progeny in her stride, and returned to her room and her books, seemingly nonplussed about the development, almost, as if, she had already known. 

 

Andrew thought that such a concept was ridiculous -- telling Elizabeth that Hermione was just a perceptive child, and that there was nothing further to question or debate on the subject -- and the matter, if there even was a matter to discuss -- was dropped. 

 

Hindsight being 20/20, of course, dropping the matter was probably a decision that the Drs. Granger would come to regret, though hindsight was providing them with a rather long list of behaviours and happenstance that had been written off as ‘just Hermione’ that were entirely greater in cause than the case of a neurotic child, or the conflicts of said child and society as a whole. For example, the Drs. Granger had entirely written off the local public primary school’s complaints that their child was  _ unnatural _ . They had pulled Hermione from the school, of course (they were  _ good _ parents, after all, and if Hermione had ever mentioned previously that she had been bullied due to her differences (which Elizabeth and Andrew assumed was a polite way of referring to the colour of her skin in comparison to other pupils, and not anything less than thinly veiled prejudice) she would have been out of the school  _ before _ supposedly scarring several of her peers ‘potentially for life’. At the time, the Grangers had thought the comment to be entirely hyperbolic, and had only dropped their threats to involve a solicitor at Hermione’s (quite frantic) insistence. 

 

However thoroughly normal Hermione was, this did nothing to explain the presence of the two strangers that had shown up -- unannounced -- on their doorstep -- on Hermione’s birthday, looking entirely out of place for the sleepy suburb of Hertfordshire the Granger family had settled in years previously, when their dreams of a large family were still in the realm of plausible, and not as  _ delusional  _ as what the two strangers were prattling on about. 

 

_ Less _ delusion, Elizabeth Granger corrected herself.  _ Magic _ certainly wasn’t real. 

 

The two strangers (introduced to the shell-shocked Drs. Grangers, who were gaping at them and seemed absolutely  _ incapable _ of speech or coherent thoughts) who stood on their doorstep (drawing the attention of the other residents of the street, due to their... _ affected _ style of dress) were named Minerva McGonagall and Nymphadora Tonks, though the younger of the two  _ positively insisted _ on being referred to as her surname, as if she was  _ Prince _ , and they seemed convinced that not only did  _ they _ do magic, but that Hermione was capable of doing magic as well.

 

Though Andrew and Elizabeth thought that the two women had lost their minds....the neighbours were staring at their unexpected visitors with poorly concealed interest...and there was the matter of Hermione to consider. So, they invited the two women in. 

 

Surely Hermione had concocted a farce as an attempt to celebrate her birthday, the Grangers hoped. 

 

Though the mere act of concocting a farce was entirely outside of their Hermione’s typical characterisation, it wasn’t as if magic being an actual fact of reality was any saner. 

 

Still, it  _ was  _ Hermione’s birthday. And it had been awhile since she had had  _ any _ birthday guests. Andrew and Elizabeth supposed that they would have to make due.

  
  


***

  
  


Hermione had been surprised to hear that she had visitors -- in spite of it being her birthday, visitors were a rare thing for Hermione -- and she was even more surprised to find out that the visitors in question weren’t some well-meaning relative in town to try to cheer up their friendless, lonely, eleven-year-old, loved one. She was entirely all too appreciative of this fact, however, as she was well aware of her status as someone who was pitied by her extended relations, at best. While she had done her best to shield her parents from her...oddities...she knew that it wasn’t entirely successful. 

 

The incident at her previous primary school was burned into her memory as a near miss, and it was only by her sheer gumption that she hadn’t been charged with assault or general mayhem due to her own parents’ misinterpretation of ‘potentially scarring her peers for life’ as a racial jab from the school’s Headmistress of Discipline. The truth was that Hermione didn’t know how she had scarred her former classmates (and the school had been unable to figure out  _ how _ the students’ classroom readers had become flammable only if touched by those who instigated the most severe bullying of the young girl), but the books  _ had _ become capable of giving her peers those burns, and she had been so mortified she had been glad to accept the transfer instead of being expelled. 

 

That wasn’t the only incident, however. 

 

Hermione had been reading books -- actually reading -- since roughly aged 13 months. Her parents had used that as their reasoning behind assuming she was merely  _ gifted _ , but the young girl had done research and found out that it was nearly  _ impossible _ to be reading at such a young age. When she had approached her parents with her knowledge, she had been blown off. 

 

Not that she could blame them, really. It wasn’t like there was a logical excuse for her behavior. 

 

Hermione -- who longed for a logical reason for everything -- had tried very hard to  _ ensure _ there was a logical reason behind her actions. The fact that there was none -- not even a rare illness -- had thrown her for a loop. It had been only natural for her to withdraw. 

 

She didn’t want people to get hurt because of her.  _ Again _ . Hermione hadn’t even wanted  _ those _ people to get hurt. She had just been  _ so angry _ . The flames had just  _ happened _ . 

 

So, when Hermione came downstairs and saw the younger woman focusing her gaze in the mirror (Hermione’s eyes went wide as she  _ swore  _ the woman’s nose change from human shaped to an actual pigs’ snout), while the older woman had sat her parents down and was explaining that it wasn’t a joke, nor were they having a laugh at their expense, but that their daughter was a witch...well, things made sense to her.

 

The reading.

 

The fire breathing books. 

 

The irreversible scars. 

 

The fact that everyone viewed her as odd was  _ also _ explained. (Hermione had never held much stock in her parents’ beliefs that the students and neighbours were a touch racist, she supposed it  _ was _ possible but the people that treated her like she was made of plutonium were also perfectly pleasant to Mum and Dad, so she was rather dubious). 

 

Having an answer to all her odd quirks was frankly quite relieving to her, even though it was making her parents look alternatively pale and rather red faced. That made sense too, though. Dentistry and being a witch seemed like  _ entirely _ different career paths. 

 

There was a letter on the table -- the letter was obviously the subject of discussion between Mum, Dad, and the older lady -- and she desperately wanted to get her hands on it and read its contents, but she also didn’t want to deal with the repercussions of wanting to do so. Part of her did recognise that it would be the easier path to ignore the presence of witches, and ignore the fact that she was going to be a witch herself, and suffer through the local school until she sat for her GSCEs and her A levels (the part that wanted to please her parents), but the greater part of her  _ wanted to know why _ . 

 

The part of Hermione Granger that wanted to know the answer to every problem, even those related to herself, won out over the part of Hermione Granger that desperately wanted her parents to think everything was fine when it very clearly wasn’t. 

 

Hermione grabbed the letter.

 

The woman with the pig shaped nose started to laugh.

  
  


***

  
  


Drs. Andrew and Elizabeth Granger, who ran a successful dentistry practice in their suburb of Herefordshire, were two perfectly normal individuals. Over the course of the year, they had forced themselves to come to terms with the fact that their daughter, Hermione, was also thoroughly normal, though not in the way that Elizabeth and Andrew had predicted over the years.

 

Hermione, you see, was a perfectly normal eleven year old  _ witch _ . 

 

Whilst it was typical of Wizarding education to begin  _ during _ the child’s eleventh year, due to Hermione’s birthday falling in September, the soon-to-be twelve year old had been forced to start her formal studies a year late. That wasn’t to say that the past year hadn’t been spent with  _ informal _ studies. 

 

When the Grangers had come to terms with the news that Hermione was magical, they had promptly pulled her out of the local primary school and arranged with Professor McGonagall for her to be homeschooled in the general knowledge, which had consisted on Hermione reading as many books on the subjects of magic and Hogwarts that she could handle. 

 

They had told everyone that Hermione was studying abroad due to receiving a scholarship at an exclusive boarding school. It was simpler than explaining any form of the truth and since Scotland was technically abroad...they didn’t feel that it was entirely a falsehood. 

 

Hermione was happy. Things made sense to her.

 

And for the Grangers, that was all that mattered.


End file.
